MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th April, 2019) Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Jose Valencia on Friday denied claims by the WikiLeaks whistleblower website that Quito wanted to hand Julian Assange over to London.
WikiLeaks tweeted on Thursday, citing a government source in Ecuador, that Assange would be expelled from the Ecuadorean embassy in London in the coming "hours or days." He has lived there since 2012.
"The Government will not comment on these baseless rumors, which are also insulting. Ecuador makes its own decisions independently from other countries. Diplomatic asylum is a state's sovereign right, and it can grant or recall it unilaterally," Valencia tweeted.
WikiLeaks claimed the Ecuadorean government had made a deal with UK authorities that Assange would be arrested. Quito would allegedly justify its decision by a WikiLeaks publication that linked President Lenin Moreno to a money-laundering scheme. Moreno is reportedly seeking debt relief from the United States, which wants Assange jailed for leaking US military secrets, which exposed its atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan.
